The discovery of a Kansas couple who planned to drive to Illinois and wound up in northern Michigan raises questions about when people are too old to drive on their own.

Goldie Hunt, 81, and her husband Vernon Hunt, 91, left Monday for Illinois and family members were concerned after they didn't arrive.

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Family members said they didn't think Goldie Hunt ever had any problems driving, but they were surprised that the couple would try making such a long road trip alone.

Hunt family members said they can't be sure that age had anything to do with the 400-mile detour, but many families do struggle with a decision to tell a loved one that his or her driving days are over.

"It's a tough thing for a family to do. Imagine going to your parents and saying, 'You can't drive anymore. We have to take the keys away.' That's really hard," said Sara Baker of the Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City.

People who go to the institute with concerns about their driving safety will take a different type of vision test than they'd get at the DMV. Depth perception and color are among the factors taken into consideration to gauge what the driver is actually seeing.

In one example at the institute, testers found evidence of a man whose brain no longer recognized anything in his right visual field.

The institute said it can even help patients with actual driving tests. The hard part, people there said, is getting a loved one to come for tests in the first place.

"How would you like to be treated if this were you? Would you like someone to come in and say, 'Nope. No more driving?' You would like to have the opportunity to figure out if there was a way or understand why," said Baker.

Experts said it's not a good idea to just take someone's keys away because they will often figure out another way to drive. One worker said they've heard of people who call up the car dealership to ask for a replacement set of keys.

Workers also said people should watch for unexplained bumps and scratches that appear on a family member's car. They said if they notice anything like that to ask the family member what happened and perhaps include a physician in the conversation.